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Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Turkish-Style Pumpkin Hummus

From the kitchen of One Perfect Bite...The young women of Turkey, especially those whose fate has placed them in larger towns and cities, are lovely and lead lives quite similar to yours or mine. Yet, a trip to villages just outside these cities illustrates the vagaries of fate and tells a story of a completely different kind. Turkey is justly famous for its food and the abundance of its table. The land supports the growth of fruits and vegetables and grains, and a trip to a Turkish market presents a veritable rainbow of color and a range of choice that's guaranteed to please anyone who likes to cook. I'd love to tell you that that abundance is the result of shared labor, but to do so would be a lie. Women man the farms and while they are in the fields their husbands and fathers are otherwise engaged. The work is backbreaking and the faces of these women are lined and cracked liked ill-fired terra cotta bricks. They age quickly and even their veils can't hide the ravages of the sun and the heavy work they do. The nature of our trip placed us on Turkish highways for long periods of time. We would occasionally stop to stretch and take a look at what was going on around us. One of the stops we made was at a roadside stand where melons and squash were being sold. We were offered samples of local melons and the Silver Fox, who is powerless in the hands of small children, was approached by a little guy carrying a melon that was the size of his head. I want you to know that melon made it with us from the outskirts of Ankara to Istanbul before it was finally eaten. It was delicious, if slightly overripe.That same market also sold pumpkin which I learned had a prominent place in the Turkish diet. With pumpkin readily available in our own markets at this time of year, I thought you might enjoy this quick and easy version of hummus that is made with it instead of chickpeas. This is wonderful when made with fresh pumpkin but the canned variety is an acceptable substitute. I like to make this dip the day before I plan to serve it. Here's the recipe.

36 comments
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I always think of pumpkin as unique American. I love the tale of the melon, little kid and the Silver Fox - such sweetness abounds in your travels. And the pumpkin hummus would be a perfect lunch. The color enchants.

This looks so interesting! I would never think to make hummus with pumpkin, but now that you've shown us ... it's brilliant!

As for the division of labor in other countries, Turkey being discussed today, I am reminded just how lucky we are in our middle class environment! And I'm with Lynne ... just what ARE those men doing while the women are laboring in field and home?

We traveled over 1600 miles around Turkey, and in every town we could not help but notice that the women did all the work, everything, including herding goats etc, which we would think of as "mens work", while the men sat at sidewalk cafes or tables under the trees in the country, drinking Turkish coffee and Raki. I thought I saw a lot of old women, but I bet many were not that old!

Mary, Thanks for the story behind the food! Farms in Central Mexico are run by 75 year old women and children. I was in Mexico for a while a couple of years ago and my heart broke at the plight of these women! Sounds like you had an interesting trip!Thanks for this exotic and seasonal hummus!Yvonne

I so relate to those women. Being divided just by the Black Sea from Turkey, Moldova is in no better state when it comes to the rural side ...the only thing that is different is the absence of veil. But this is the state of things in all the developing and underdeveloped world, so we should be so grateful for what we have. And I am sure most of us are, especially after visiting places and seeing the struggles one has to go through to survive ...as for hummus, interesting indeed, since I always associated the name to the chickpea.

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